Lehigh County wants to replace Linden Street Bridge

Cunningham proposes spending $5.5 million on Allentown span.

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham wants to spend $5.5 million in county funds to replace the Linden Street Bridge, a key downtown Allentown gateway reduced to one lane in May 2005.

Waiting to receive state and federal funding would mean work on the deteriorating stone arch bridge would be completed by 2012 at the earliest, according to Cunningham Thursday.

But the county can have the bridge replaced by 2009 by using its own money, he said.

"I think when we have a high profile and important bridge, we can't wait around for someone else to pay for something that is our responsibility," Cunningham said.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski welcomed the news. By 2012, the bridge, spanning over the Jordan Creek, may be unsafe, he said.

"The bridge may be into the creek at that point," said Pawlowski, who has urged the county through a letter and discussions to take action.

Cunningham said expediting the county's responsibility will benefit the city. "Allentown needs and deserves some help from the county."

County commissioners must approve the project.

Commissioner Chairman Percy H. Dougherty said he supports replacing the bridge and promoting county-city cooperation. But he's planning a provision that would require the city to assume control of the new bridge.

"If we put $5 million into replacing a bridge for them, this is going up and beyond our duty," he said.

But Pawlowski said the county, with its resources, shouldn't pass along another responsibility to the cash-strapped city.

"It would be ludicrous for me to take on more capital projects going into the future," he said.

The bridge, built in 1884, links American Parkway to Fourth Street. A county official in 2005 estimated between 4,000 and 11,000 vehicles traveled daily over the bridge, one of the largest stone arch structures in the county.

Officials in 2005 reduced the number of the bridge's lanes from two to one 14-foot-wide lane because of the deterioration in its stone supports.

Levi Price, Cunninghams chief of staff, said it would be more expensive to repair the bridge than to replace it. He and Pawlowski said no one can see its historical details, unlike the Albertus Meyers Bridge, commonly called the Eighth Street bridge.

After commissioners approve the project, estimated to cost $5.5 million, county officials hope to have engineering work on the bridge begin within the next few months.

In the late summer or fall, the county will issue bonds to cover the costs of the courthouse expansion and other capital projects.

Cunningham had scrapped the original $80.6 million courthouse plan proposed by the previous administration, and he and commissioners finally agreed in September on a $60 million proposal. The savings, Cunningham said, would go toward the Linden Street bridge.

The county also used its own funds to replace Mickley Road Bridge in Whitehall Township, a $2 million project completed in July.